


Queen of Knightsbridge

by Houseofmalfoy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Muggle, F/F, Gen, Karaoke, Narcissa Black Malfoy-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:40:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24487585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Houseofmalfoy/pseuds/Houseofmalfoy
Summary: When Narcissa's introduced to her girlfriend's group of tightknit friends, she's not looking forward to seeing her long disowned cousin for the first time in years.Written for a karaoke prompt.
Relationships: Narcissa Black Malfoy/Marlene McKinnon, Sirius Black & Narcissa Black Malfoy
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	Queen of Knightsbridge

**Author's Note:**

  * For [evawrites](https://archiveofourown.org/users/evawrites/gifts).



> This was written for Evadwrites prompt on tumblr: "Sirius & Narcissa. karaoke : my muse pulls your muse up on stage with them to sing some karaoke songs."

“I know it’s not your ideal idea of a date, Cissa, but it’s gonna be fun, promise.”

Narcissa turned her head towards her girlfriend, giving Marlene the best smile she could manage before she laughed at the way she rolled her eyes at Narcissa. “I can trust you for just one night, I guess,” she answered, and she continued to grin even as Marlene pecked her lips before leading her along to the bar they’d agreed to meet the others. 

“You did make me sit through dinner with your family, it’s only fair you meet mine.”

Narcissa briefly wondered what it said about them that neither of these families included people they were related to by blood. 

She had every intention of introducing Marlene to her sisters and father later on in the relationship, she wasn’t estranged from her family as some of the other Blacks, but it had felt more genuine and more important to have her girlfriend meet the Lestranges first. 

Dinner at Lestrange Manor had been lovely albeit a little awkward in the beginning, but Adrastia Lestrange had welcomed Marlene with open arms, and after some time had been spent together even the twins’ ramblings on sports and horses hadn’t quite managed to scare Marlene off.

Narcissa was grateful for it. Rabastan and Rodolphus were among the most important people in her life and she didn’t see that changing anytime soon; they’d been her dearest friends since they’d been barely five years old, and it’d felt important for them to not only meet Marlene, but approve of her as well.  _ That  _ they had. 

In return for the formal introductions to a family that Narcissa considered her own, here she was. 

Marlene took her to the door of a karaoke bar that looked a little worse for wear, but Narcissa knew better than to comment on the exterior even though she was quite certain her girlfriend knew exactly what was on her mind. No doubt the rest of Marlene’s friends were already inside, many of which she’d despised out of nothing but principle for years because of their relationship with a certain cousin of Narcissa’s. 

A cousin who would, if plans hadn’t changed, also be here tonight.  _ What a treat, _ Narcissa thought. 

Narcissa was led inside where she instantly spotted a relatively large group of people sitting around a table, close enough to the stage, if that was an appropriate term for the levelled but stained platform, to spill their drinks on it. 

Lily, James, Dorcas, Emmeline, Alice, Gideon and Fabian, Sirius and Remus, and to Narcissa’s great relief a woman she remembered from law school: Emma Vanity.  _ Thank Goodness. _

A drink was immediately ordered for Narcissa, handed to her by a broadly grinning James Potter, and after she’d been introduced to Marlene’s other friends she sat down in the booth close to her girlfriend, smiling politely albeit slightly uncomfortable at the group. 

She avoided Sirius’ eyes at all costs, though she didn’t miss the way the others were watching the two of them as though they could blow up at any moment. 

She supposed it wasn’t a wildly far-fetched assumption. 

She could hardly remember the last time she had seen her cousin, let alone speak to him, and frankly Narcissa wasn’t sure whether she was so keen on starting today. She’d known Sirius would be here, naturally; she’d heard enough about him from Marlene over the past weeks, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t pretend he wasn’t here.

They watched James and Lily perform an overtly dramatic duet together that ended in the both of them on their knees on stage, pretend-weeping in each other’s arms, and Narcissa revelled in the attention she was given when Marlene sang a song just for her: suggestive and bold as she always was. 

oOo

Narcissa wasn’t entirely at ease within this group of friends that had obviously known each other for years. She was the outsider here, not a position she was accustomed to in her day to day life and certainly not one she was planning to grow used to any time soon. Still, knowing Marlene considered her important enough to be introduced to the friends Narcissa knew she considered her family made her feel rather special. 

They’d only been seeing each other for a month and a half, after they’d met in the tattoo parlour Rodolphus ran; the beautifully done thin-lined roses within a geometric diamond shape that Marlene had gotten that afternoon were quite gorgeous in her opinion. 

Narcissa had only been there to drop off a package from Adrastia, Rodolphus’ mother who she honestly considered to be her own mother as well, but Marlene had instantly caught her eye.  _ How could she not have? _

They’d gone out for coffee and for drinks since then, Marlene had stayed over at Narcissa’s flat a few times and never failed to mention how much it went against her principles to be somewhere so ‘filthily’ expensive and enjoy it. Narcissa had spent many more nights at Marlene’s own shared flat with two of her friends

It’d only been a month and a half, perhaps, but something in the way Marlene looked at her from behind a curtain of wild golden curls that Narcissa couldn’t stop admiring when she had the chance, told her that her silent hope that it wouldn’t stay at just a month and a half was entirely mutual. 

Marlene went up on stage a second time, with Dorcas and Emmeline now, and after she’d asked if Narcissa wanted to join her for a song and had respected her declining the offer, she’d sat down in Narcissa’s lap with two new drinks in hand. 

For a while Narcissa talked only to Emma, whom she hadn’t spoken with since they’d graduated from Cambridge. She was glad for the familiar and friendly face between the people she’d either never met, had only ever disliked, or had had a  _ serious  _ falling out with in the past. 

She had a surprisingly pleasant time catching up on Emma’s life and sharing a few of the more appropriate stories from their university days with the rest of the group, until Narcissa felt Marlene brush her hair behind her shoulder and nuzzle her neck gently, probing at the skin with a tender kiss. Narcissa laughed. 

She wasn’t usually one for blatantly public displays of affection, but when Marlene leaned in inquisitively, Narcissa was the first to bridge the gap between them. Exceptions could be made for particularly gorgeous women, she figured. She could ignore the mild cheering, the small shock when someone slapped Marlene’s shoulder as though to congratulate her, she could just focus on the alcohol in her veins and the chapped lips moving against her own. 

Marlene, as she had grown used to over the past month, made her just a little more bold than she normally considered herself to be. Narcissa didn’t think she minded it at all. 

After a few more songs and growing steadily more comfortable in the tight-knit circle of friends Marlene had introduced her to, Narcissa got up to get another drink for her and Marlene.

While waiting for her drink, she was approached by none other than Sirius himself. 

“Cousin.”

“So you  _ are  _ speaking to me?” Narcissa asked him coolly, not even turning his way when she spoke to him. 

Sirius huffed. “Prongs said I should try. Regretting it now, don’t worry.”

“Still not over yourself, how lovely.”

“What are you doing here anyway?”

Narcissa turned to face him then, drinks in hand, and when she raised an overtly polite eyebrow at him, because she knew nothing got on his nerves more than the manners they’d been raised with, Sirius rolled his eyes. 

“Marlene brought me, you were told about that,” she explained as though she were speaking to a five year old, and Sirius narrowed his eyes at her. 

“You know what I mean.”

“I’m afraid I don’t.”

“What the fuck are you doing with Marlene? She’d never agree to be with some posh fucking  _ cunt  _ like you, Cissa.”

Narcissa laughed in his face. 

Truth to be told, she wasn’t always sure what exactly it was about her that Marlene was so head over heels with, either. 

From the beginning Marlene had made it clear that she did not agree with nearly anything in Narcissa’s life. She didn’t approve of the maid that cleaned her flat; didn’t approve of the old money that had paid for her university degree just as is would for her childrens’ and grandchildrens’; didn’t approve of anything Narcissa considered her  _ normal _ .

Perhaps in the future they’d clash over it more than they did now, but Narcissa wasn’t going to admit those hesitations to her cousin. 

“She describes you as one of her dearest friends, why don’t you ask her yourself as you clearly don’t know her quite as well as you seem to believe you do?”

He took a step closer to her, then looked over his shoulder back to the rest of the group who were now looking at the two of them as though there might be blood soon. As if Narcissa would ever lower herself to fight in a place like this, with a man like this. The thought alone sent shivers of disgust up her spine. 

“Just get the fuck away from her. No Black’s good enough for my friends.”

“You’ve always been so good at pretending you’re not every bit as much a Black as I am.”

Narcissa put more effort into sounding bored with the conversation than she’d have admitted out loud, but it worked perfectly to anger him more. “More than I am, really. With your parents and all.”

Slightly below the belt, certainly. She was proven correct in that assessment when Sirius shoved her away angrily. Narcissa took a step back, regaining her balance, and then looked back at him as though she was daring him to go on. “You decided the lot of us were below you, Sirius, and you ran off thinking you’d gained the moral high ground with no consideration whatsoever for what you were doing to your own blood.”

She didn’t exactly believe every word of what she was saying. 

Truth be told, there were enough members of her family she’d gladly never speak to again and Sirius’ parents were included. Narcissa’s relationship with her last name and the family attached to it and the privilege it brought her had always been complicated, something that had only gotten more difficult for her to decipher and acknowledge after she’d come out. 

Her aunt and uncle and her mother especially had been far from thrilled to have to explain to their prestigious, high-classed, conservative and utterly dense friends across society that their youngest had come out as transgender, a word they’d uttered as though it burned the insides of their mouths. She hated that, but she wasn’t so sure if she could do without everything else her homelife had given her. 

The cliché of daddy’s money paying for her degree had helped her immensely, even though in her heart she knew her uncle Alphard would have paid either way, and the name Black was both prestigious and feared throughout high society; she’d grown used to it, she’d used it to her advantage, and she didn’t feel ready to find out what she’d be without the protection of a legacy she was beginning to understand was wrong. 

Marlene had pointed it out on a nearly daily basis since they’d started dating, and though Narcissa had not once argued nor enthusiastically agreed, it was beginning to dawn on her that perhaps she should make up her mind one of these days. 

Today was not that day, however, and either way none of these hesitations were meant to be shared with a cousin she immensely disliked. 

oOo

She and Sirius didn’t say a word to each other again after the argument at the bar until Dorcas had passed him the microphone and, before any music had started playing, he’d stood in the middle of the make-shift stage and raised his eyebrows at Narcissa. 

“Come on up, love. I know we’re not your usual crowd, not quite up to your fucking standards are we? But surely the queen of Knightsbridge can grace us with a performance too?”

She raised her eyebrows and scoffed at him, but before she could retort Sirius had taken her hand and pulled her from the booth more harshly than she’d expected. “Let go of me, arsehole,” she hissed. 

Narcissa turned her head to look back at Marlene, who looked at her with surprise though she still grinned broadly. Bloody useless. “What the hell are you doing, Sirius?” She whispered, even though it was rather obvious what he was planning. 

“Won’t you sing with me, lovely Narcissa?”

His voice was coated in sarcasm and anger almost as much as it was a blatant challenge. Sirius dared her, and he knew her well enough to know her pride didn’t allow her to sit back down now. The  _ Queen of Knightsbridge _ , who thinks she’s better than her girlfriend’s found family; Narcissa wouldn’t get rid of that reputation so easily. 

She took the mic from her cousin with a roll of her eyes and took a step back from him. Challenge accepted. “Pick a song.”

“Man after midnight.”

“It’s called ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!’.”

“How does Marly put up with you?”

Narcissa ignored him. 

To her frustration, Sirius was as good a singer as she remembered him being. 

They’d shared many singing classes as children, both their parents insisting skills as such were exceptionally important to impress the rest of society. A career in the arts might always have been frowned upon, but certain skills required for it were highly sought after. 

Narcissa supposed neither of their parents had intended for the years of singing tutors to be put to use in a, quite frankly, disgusting karaoke bar. Regardless of that knowledge, she was not about to back down and allow Sirius to revel in his false sense of superiority.

Halfway through the second verse, she found herself enjoying the performance far more than anticipated. 

Sirius was grinning at her, less angry than before and even though she was sure that that would return later, Narcissa didn’t complain about the moment of peace. She sang, laughing as soon as she could without messing up her part when his tendency for dramatics won from his desire to not be nice to her. 

Narcissa figured that mentioning the Black family’s tendency to be dramatic would ruin the moment, even if it was true. That did mean, however, that she knew exactly how to not let him show her up too much. 

From the perspective of his and Marlene’s friends, it might have looked as if they were about to start a fight. They looked at each other, challenging one another to do more, to go further, to flaunt a little more, and much to Narcissa’s surprise she had quite a bit of fun losing herself to the music. 

In any case, she could sing far better than some of the other utterly pathetic performances she’d born witness to tonight. Narcissa could even begrudgingly admit that Sirius could, too.

At some point during the song he got ridiculously close to her, towering over her just slightly despite the heels she was wearing, and though she’d have felt threatened or would have lashed out earlier there was something that told her it was  _ fine  _ for now. 

It was fine, because Narcissa didn’t despise him any less for what he’d done to her family and she didn’t hate him any less for the way he made her question her own decisions; just as she was sure that he still didn’t feel the exact same way about her. Regardless, she was grinning from ear to ear when the music died down and they were left on a quiet stage, laughing when Sirius bowed in a somewhat more dramatic fashion than when he’d been singing. 

“You,” Sirius accused her with a happy grin, pointing towards Narcissa with his microphone, “you are more of a match for me than I’d expected. Another one.”

He demanded it, not asked it, and at once her initial dislike for her cousin resurfaced as she scoffed indignantly at his nerve. “That’s no way to speak to me, bastard,” Narcissa muttered, her eyes narrowed angrily so even if the people watching them nervously had no idea what they were saying, it was clear they were no kind words. 

“Pick a song,  _ princess _ .”

Sweet Jesus, she hated him. 

“Sticking with the theme… Waterloo.”

The anger hadn’t quite left her voice when she began singing, but neither had his and it made for a rather interesting first verse of the song. There was only so much frustration you could pour into an ABBA song, though, and by the time they’d hit the chorus Narcissa found herself smiling up at his arrogant grin once more. 

Sirius, at some point during the second verse, had the audacity to pull her closer to him without warning, but when the movement made his voice skip a note she could make her peace with nearly losing her balance. 

His rendition of giving up the fight was paired with Sirius going down on one knee, arm crossed over his chest dramatically, and Narcissa laughed at him before she playfully shoved him away from her. 

At the end of the song he’d ended up on his back on the bar itself and Narcissa didn’t want to know what sort of filth he was laying in exactly. She watched him, curious and smiling until she had to stop singing because she couldn’t stop herself from laughing. 

For a moment she wondered what Walburga’s reaction to it would be, then she nearly frightened herself imagining her own mother’s criticism of it all, but with one more good look at how careless everyone here seemed to be, most of all her damned cousin, the worry about DruellaBlack’s judgement of her melted away faster than expected. 

When the music began to die down, Narcissa turned away from Sirius to face Marlene and her friends again. Emma was cheering, ever the enthusiastic drunk she’d always been at university; James was looking at her with something that she chose to read as approval and Lily and Remus were eyeing Sirius behind her worriedly. 

When she faced Marlene, she was grinning up at Narcissa with sparkling brown eyes, and none of what she’d been worrying about before seemed to matter anymore. The rest of the bar fell away, the music faded to nothing even though it hadn’t stopped yet, and she saw nothing else but Marlene and her bright smile and golden curls.

Narcissa kissed her before the music even really stopped, not bothering to look where she put her microphone down before she cupped Marlene’s face in her hands and properly snogged her as though she had not had all the reservations in the world about PDA earlier that night. 

Marlene, to her credit, muttered a quiet “you okay, Cissa?” and only answered the kiss with the excitement Narcissa knew she had after she’d received a positive response. 

She was okay, more than okay, even if she was far from home in this place with these people and this music; even if she felt more out of place than she had in a long time, even if Marlene, and Emma Vanity, were really the only people she felt she could get along with. 

And Sirius, she supposed. That had been a relatively pleasant surprise of the night, and perhaps the reason she was perfectly okay with whatever the rest of the night had in store. 

Everything about this was new: the bar, the people, seeing Sirius again, and even Marlene herself. Narcissa wondered if it was naive to think that a run-in with a cousin, a part of her family she’d vowed to never lay eyes on again, could go relatively alright even when there were still obvious tensions between them (she supposed ABBA couldn’t solve everything over the course of two songs), going smoother than anticipated could mean something for the future. 

There were many things in her life and her family and the world around them that she’d grown unsure of lately, many things she didn’t quite understand or didn’t quite feel comfortable with or wasn’t quite brave enough to admit yet; whatever life Sirius had built outside of their unforgiving and conservative family had certainly been one of them, and so had just about everything to do with Marlene’s own life. 

Narcissa wondered, as she kissed her girlfriend in the middle of a crowded karaoke bar she’d never have set foot in a few years back, if perhaps discovering more about the lives outside of her own society could be a step in the right direction. She sure as hell hoped it was, because if she was right, this all might become just a little bit simpler. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are of course always appreciated!


End file.
